3 matches for each team in the group,Top two of each group head to 1/4 of all-ireland top tier comp- then can progress to final bottom 4 teams play one match ie bottom a) plays bottom d) bottom b) plays bottom c)2losers of these matches relegated to lower tier competition

lower tier competition played on same basis with only one difference, new york have a preliminary match against a selected team to be able to enter the 2nd tier competition.

on sat ---- all ireland final tier two compon sun--- all ireland final tier one comp

Simple really. All the counties want the chance to play for the Sam Maguire cup. Use the leagues as pots for groups of 4. Play the group and the top two from the group go through to the Sam Maguire cup, the bottom too go through to play for Tommy Murphy Cup (or whatever they'll call it). Nobody can have any complaints with that structure.

I would have three tiers with Senior having 12 teams and Inter and Junior having 10 teams each. Basing the seedings on how the counties finished up last year in the league:

Senior would have 12 teams (All 8 Div 1 teams plus top 4 teams in Div 2).The teams that finished in this position last year were Dublin, Kerry, Donegal, Monaghan, Mayo, Tyrone, Cavan, Roscommon, Galway, Kildare, Meath and Cork. There would be 3 groups with 4 teams in each group. Each team plays each other once. Each team would get a home match, an away match and one match would be neutral. It would be open draw so going on alphabetically order this is how the groups would turn out:

Top 2 in each group plus the 2 best third places go through to the quarter-finals. It would all be ranked:A) Group winner with the best record v third place team with the worse record. (1 v 8)B) Group winner with the second best record v third place team with the second worse record. (2 v 7)C) Group winner with the third best record v Runners up with the worse record. (3 v 6)D) Runners up with the best record v Runners up with the second best record. (4 v 5)

Semi - Finals:1) Winner Match A v D2) Winner Match B v C

Final:1 v 2

Relegation:This would be the 3 teams that finish bottom plus the 3rd team with the worse record. This would also be ranked:A) The 3rd team with the worse record would play the bottom team with the worse record. (9 v 12)B) The bottom team with the third worse record would play the bottom team with second worse record. (10 v 11)

The two losers from A and B would play each in the relegation final with the loser going down to Inter.

Inter would have 10 teams.( Bottom 4 teams in Div 2 plus top 6 teams in Div 3).The teams that finished in this position last year were Clare, Down, Derry, Fermanagh, Louth, Tipp, Armagh, Sligo, Offaly and Longford. There would be 2 groups with 5 teams in each group. Each team plays each other once. Each team would get 2 home matches and 2 away matches. It would be open draw so going on alphabetically order this is how the groups would turn out:

Third place teams would meet the runners up in the quarter-finals:1) Runner up in Group A v 3rd team in Group B 2) Runner up in Group B v 3rd team in Group A

Semi-Finals:A) Winner Group A v Winner of 2B) Winner Group B v Winner of 1

Final:A v B

Relegation:1) Bottom team in Group A v Second bottom in Group B2) Bottom team in Group B v Second bottom in Group A

The two losers from 1 v 2 would play each other with the loser going down to Junior.

Junior would have 10 teams.( Bottom 2 teams in Div 3 plus all 8 Div 4 teams).The teams that finished in this position last year were Antrim, Laois, Westmeath, Wexford, Carlow, Limerick, Leitrim, Waterford, Wicklow, London. There would be 2 groups with 5 teams in each group. Each team plays each other once. Each team would get 2 home matches and 2 away matches. It would be open draw so going on alphabetically order this is how the groups would turn out:

Replying To letsgosligo: "Simple really. All the counties want the chance to play for the Sam Maguire cup. Use the leagues as pots for groups of 4. Play the group and the top two from the group go through to the Sam Maguire cup, the bottom too go through to play for Tommy Murphy Cup (or whatever they'll call it). Nobody can have any complaints with that structure."

Every club team wants to play in the senior championship too (well except for Corduff in Monaghan but thats another story). Every team dont nor shouldnt.Intermediate and junior teams celebrate championship wins as much for the promotion as the cup itself. A second tier competition based on progression will work, a second tier competition run between loser teams will not.

Replying To Eddie the Exile: "Every club team wants to play in the senior championship too (well except for Corduff in Monaghan but thats another story). Every team dont nor shouldnt.Intermediate and junior teams celebrate championship wins as much for the promotion as the cup itself. A second tier competition based on progression will work, a second tier competition run between loser teams will not."

Any proposal that removes an automatic right to play for the Sam Maguire cup would be rejected by all counties. What's the problem with what I suggested?

Promotion round 2 winners play 9th and 10th place Division 1 Teams in the Final promotion relegation matches.

The whole competition takes up only 13 game weeks. Every team's fixtures can be determined right at the start of the season and club action played in parallel to county action without disruption.

Play the regular season April to August. Each county has 11 weekends out of 22 they'll be in intercounty action (arrange hurling also for those weekends). County boards are forced to set aside 6 of their free weekends in that time for club matches with county players between the 2 codes.

Replying To s goldrick: "we already have a league system which is working absolutely fine.The knockout competition should be the secondary competition and should be an open-draw straight knockout.

provincial championships are a thing of the past and should be consigned to the history books."

The league shouldn't be in February or March.

If it's going to be your main competition I think it needs to have a flatter structure so that the weaker teams still can get some sort of exposure, or else it could be bad for interest in the game in those smaller counties.

I wouldn't care to watch Antrim in division 4 league action particularly. Watching them play division 2 North versus Down or Derry could be exciting.

Basically the idea is to get as many of the exciting games played as possible.

If it's going to be your main competition I think it needs to have a flatter structure so that the weaker teams still can get some sort of exposure, or else it could be bad for interest in the game in those smaller counties.

I wouldn't care to watch Antrim in division 4 league action particularly. Watching them play division 2 North versus Down or Derry could be exciting.

Basically the idea is to get as many of the exciting games played as possible."

Replying To OLLIE: "I would have three tiers with Senior having 12 teams and Inter and Junior having 10 teams each. Basing the seedings on how the counties finished up last year in the league:

Senior would have 12 teams (All 8 Div 1 teams plus top 4 teams in Div 2).The teams that finished in this position last year were Dublin, Kerry, Donegal, Monaghan, Mayo, Tyrone, Cavan, Roscommon, Galway, Kildare, Meath and Cork. There would be 3 groups with 4 teams in each group. Each team plays each other once. Each team would get a home match, an away match and one match would be neutral. It would be open draw so going on alphabetically order this is how the groups would turn out:

Top 2 in each group plus the 2 best third places go through to the quarter-finals. It would all be ranked:A) Group winner with the best record v third place team with the worse record. (1 v 8)B) Group winner with the second best record v third place team with the second worse record. (2 v 7)C) Group winner with the third best record v Runners up with the worse record. (3 v 6)D) Runners up with the best record v Runners up with the second best record. (4 v 5)

Semi - Finals:1) Winner Match A v D2) Winner Match B v C

Final:1 v 2

Relegation:This would be the 3 teams that finish bottom plus the 3rd team with the worse record. This would also be ranked:A) The 3rd team with the worse record would play the bottom team with the worse record. (9 v 12)B) The bottom team with the third worse record would play the bottom team with second worse record. (10 v 11)

The two losers from A and B would play each in the relegation final with the loser going down to Inter.

Inter would have 10 teams.( Bottom 4 teams in Div 2 plus top 6 teams in Div 3).The teams that finished in this position last year were Clare, Down, Derry, Fermanagh, Louth, Tipp, Armagh, Sligo, Offaly and Longford. There would be 2 groups with 5 teams in each group. Each team plays each other once. Each team would get 2 home matches and 2 away matches. It would be open draw so going on alphabetically order this is how the groups would turn out:

Third place teams would meet the runners up in the quarter-finals:1) Runner up in Group A v 3rd team in Group B 2) Runner up in Group B v 3rd team in Group A

Semi-Finals:A) Winner Group A v Winner of 2B) Winner Group B v Winner of 1

Final:A v B

Relegation:1) Bottom team in Group A v Second bottom in Group B2) Bottom team in Group B v Second bottom in Group A

The two losers from 1 v 2 would play each other with the loser going down to Junior.

Junior would have 10 teams.( Bottom 2 teams in Div 3 plus all 8 Div 4 teams).The teams that finished in this position last year were Antrim, Laois, Westmeath, Wexford, Carlow, Limerick, Leitrim, Waterford, Wicklow, London. There would be 2 groups with 5 teams in each group. Each team plays each other once. Each team would get 2 home matches and 2 away matches. It would be open draw so going on alphabetically order this is how the groups would turn out:

Replying To Eddie the Exile: "Every club team wants to play in the senior championship too (well except for Corduff in Monaghan but thats another story). Every team dont nor shouldnt.Intermediate and junior teams celebrate championship wins as much for the promotion as the cup itself. A second tier competition based on progression will work, a second tier competition run between loser teams will not."

Agree with a lot you say. Losing, weak teams playing each other will not improve teams. The Tommy Murphy cup was a disaster. I'm intrigued by Corduff-care to explain? Is Corduff Banty's Club?

Replying To s goldrick: "we already have a league system which is working absolutely fine.The knockout competition should be the secondary competition and should be an open-draw straight knockout.

provincial championships are a thing of the past and should be consigned to the history books."

I'm not been smart here but how would you feel if Cavan won Ulster? I remember the last time, the celebrations were amazing. If Cavan beat say Down, Donegal and played and beat Tyrone in an Ulster final in front of 30 plus thousand I'd say no one in Cavan would work for a week. Now is unlikely at the the moment but in a few years who knows

If you were to have a two tier system I suggest you do it in the following way:Take the top four counties (in truth the only counties likely to win an All-Ireland in the foreseeable future) and have them play some kind of super cup competition, on a league basis among themselves. If this league was attractive enough it might generate enough money to pay the players.

All other counties play for the All-Ireland with an open draw. (Retaining the Provincial c'ships is possible within this set-up but would raise familiar problems. )

Replying To The_Fridge: "I'm not been smart here but how would you feel if Cavan won Ulster? I remember the last time, the celebrations were amazing. If Cavan beat say Down, Donegal and played and beat Tyrone in an Ulster final in front of 30 plus thousand I'd say no one in Cavan would work for a week. Now is unlikely at the the moment but in a few years who knows"

I think some of the feelings towards the Provincial championships are a bit irrational.

The way I see them is they're just the opening stages of the tournament. One sided games are to be expected. They're also just a marketing tool. Ulster semifinal is a better sell to me than Championship round 2. The regional rivalries adds a bit of spice.

There's some problems that comes with them. They're not balanced. Them and the qualifiers make scheduling difficult.